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| Portrait of the Invisible Monster on front cover of MFC No. 8 |
The Invisible
Monster was a part-serialised humour strip. Its
short 19-week run consisted of four ‘chapters’:
Chapter one
– introductory episode in MFC No. 1;
Chapter two
– the Invisible Monster meets Tich and together they are on the run from the
authorities (MFC issues 2 – 10);
Chapter
three – the Invisible Monster stays with Tich’s family in London (non-serialised episodes in MFC issues
11 – 17);
Chapter four
– Tich takes the Invisible Monster out of London and the story reaches a satisfactory conclusion (MFC
issues 18 and 19).
Here is a summary
of the story: the Invisible Monster emerged from the sea one dark night and
made headlines nationwide when he picked up a lighthouse and used it as a torch
as he walked to London.
Tich heard about the Invisible Monster on the radio while camping with his pal, right
before the giant showed up at their campsite and burned his foot on the
campfire. Tich came to his aid, offered him some bandages and befriended the
mystery talking giant.
The police
and the army are after the invisible menace and the bandaged giant foot makes
him easy to spot. Tich and his new friend spend the next few episodes running
away from pursuers.
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| The Army have tied the Invisible Monster to a train in his sleep |
In issue 8
the Invisible Monster Task Force (I.M.5) send Colonel Crumpet – the most famous
big-game hunter in the World, on the mission of catching the IM. Colonel
Crumpet dopes the monster with a fake giant lollipop and then lures him into
Monster Cavern, but to no avail – the luck is always on the side of Tich and
the IM; they finally make it to London where the Invisible Monster has a show-down
with another monster whom Colonel Crumpet and I.M.5 retrieved from the Monster
Cavern and brought to the city believing it was the IM.
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| The Invisible Monster bashes his oponent with Nelson's Column |
The next
few non-serialised episodes show the IM’s antics during his stay with Tich and
his parents in London, spiced-up with the odd attempt of I.M.5 to capture the giant.
Tich realises that London is no longer a safe place for the Invisible Monster
so he takes him to Scotland. Tich finds him a secluded lake where the IM meets ‘a
female monster’ who gives him a nasty black eye. The black eye spreads all over the Invisible Monster's body and finally makes him visible:
The weekly
episodes were two-pagers (except in issues 14 and 17 where they were 1 ½ pages
long). All were illustrated and signed by Sid Burgon (except in issue 17 where Terry
Bave may have had a hand). The Invisible Monster featured on the cover of MFC issue
No. 8.
The strip
was tied-in with a participation feature. The invisibility of the main
character was a good reason to invite the readers to send-in their drawings
of how they pictured the hero of the story and collect cash prizes:
The Invisible Monster prize winning pictures appeared in MFC issues 8 to 19 and were presented in b/w, except in issues 11 and 14 where they were in full colour:
